


Watercolours

by oldgodbaby



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 20:05:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3908896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldgodbaby/pseuds/oldgodbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>inspired by the following prompt:  I’m in art class and I just opened a cupboard to find a tiny person (you) squished inside and you just looked at me and said “shh i’m hiding”</p><p>(part of a larger DA modern AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watercolours

She walked into the classroom through the open door with a smile on her face and her hands cupped around a steaming mug of coffee, fully prepared for an ordinary lesson. All of her students were sat in their respective seats, and the only prevalent sound was restless shuffling and the occasional murmuring. There were only twelve students all in all and they were fairly well behaved. As they should be. The class was elective.

Carlyn Hawke watched them turn towards her as she made her way to the desk at the front of the classroom.

“I see you’ve all found the way to the new classroom just fine. Good, I had some trouble,” she paused, setting her mug down on her desk.

“Well, don’t stare at me like I hold the answers to all of life’s questions. You had an assignment due today, if my memory serves me correctly. And it does,” she continued, casting a sweeping glance around the classroom as she sat down. “Let me see.”

More shuffling as everyone collectively pulled out their spiral pads and turned to the correct pages. They then proceeded to pass them up to the student closest to Carlyn so she could pass them on to the teacher.

“You’re all very quiet. Is something wrong?”

Lace, the girl at the very front, spoke up.

“No miss, it’s just that, not all of us were particularly thrilled at having to do portraits for the third time in a row.”

Before Carlyn could reply, she was interrupted by another student at the back of the class.

“Speak for yourself, I like portraits!”

A heated debate ensued and Carlyn turned her attention to the desk drawers, in an attempt to become more acquainted with what was inside them, as well as to find a pencil or pen or piece of chalk or something to sketch with. By the time she reached for the door of the cupboard under the desk she had already checked all the drawers and come up empty so she definitely wasn’t expecting to find anything.

Instead, she saw a figure huddled in the small space, legs up against her chest, big green eyes peering up at Carlyn from a pale tattooed face.

Carlyn’s chair scraped loudly against the floor when she reflexively pushed herself back, but the students’ argument worked towards masking the noise to some degree. The woman in the cupboard immediately raised a finger to her lips, a deep frown weighing down on her brow. Carlyn bit her tongue and closed the cupboard door without a sound.

“Alright, settle down.”

The argument continued.

“If you’re all quiet, I’ll let you leave early.”

Carlyn raised her voice only a tad over the noise but it died down as suddenly as it had started.

“Right. Since you were all so…since some of you were so unhappy with the previous assignment, how would you like to choose your own theme for next week?”

With her heart racing in her chest, Hawke quickly explained that every student was to choose their own topic for the coming week, and they would get the rest of the lesson off to give them “a good headstart.”

There were no protests. The class filed out as calmly as they possibly could in the circumstances.

Carlyn returned to the cupboard but did not touch the door. Instead, she sat down in her chair and waited. A couple of minutes later the door opened slowly and the mysterious woman ducked out.

She jumped back in surprise when she noticed Hawke. The latter woman stood and considered holding her hand out. Then she reconsidered.

“Oh! It was so quiet, I thought everyone was gone, I -”

“Don’t worry about it, there’s no harm done,” Carlyn replied in an amiable tone. “What’s your name?”

“Merrill.”

She was an elf for certain; Dalish, judging by the tattoos on her face. Her dark hair was cropped short, arranged in a collection of small braids around her head. She was wearing a plain, bright orange spaghetti strap dress without any kind of cardigan or jacket, not entirely appropriate attire for early March. 

“My name is Carlyn. Carlyn Hawke.”

Merrill pondered the introduction for a second.

“Hawke? Like the bird?”

A snort escaped Carlyn.

“Well, I mean, there’s an ‘e’ at the end but, yeah, I guess so.”

Silence fell between the two women and they both found themselves picking at their hands. Merrill was wringing hers while Carlyn cracked her knuckles.

“So…what were you doing in the closet?”

“Right, yes! Hiding.”

The art teacher nodded as if it all made perfect sense.

“Hiding.”

“Yes.”

“What?”

Merrill’s comfortable expression shattered when she realized she’d have to explain herself.

“There was someone I needed, wanted, to see but I, I panicked and I-”

“That person wouldn’t be Feynriel by any chance, would it?” Carlyn said, reaching for her mug, without taking her eyes off Merrill.

“Yes! What? I mean -”

“I thought I recognized you from somewhere.”

Carlyn turned to her desk and reached out with one hand for one particular pad in the pile. She placed her mug back down without having taken a sip (she had only picked it up to give her hands something to do) and flipped back a few pages. Then she presented Merrill with a watercolour portrait that captured the elf in stunning detail.

“I asked my students to pick a subject they really cared about. Someone important to them.”

Merrill took the pad, her eyes running over every detail, completely engrossed in the creation.

“Judging by the look on your face, I assume he didn’t tell you.”

“No, I had no idea.” 

“It is a beautiful portrait.”

Carlyn was inclined to leave the statement as it was until Merrill glanced up at her with a soft smile.

“Be-because of the a-artistry involved. The uh, colours and shadows and the lighting.”

Merrill nodded and turned her attention back to the watercolour.

“I see. Are those all technical terms?”

“Not exactly. Well, I mean they could be but,” Carlyn cleared her throat, “not in this instance, no,” she could feel her entire body heat up so she quickly changed the subject. “So, you were hiding from Feynriel in the cupboard, then?”

‘Smooth, Hawke,’ she thought as she watched the elf’s eyes widen involuntarily. She imagined Merrill’s chest was probably tightening and she must have been experiencing some degree of shortness of breath, judging by the way her lips parted slightly. ‘No, honestly, well done, good job, great going there.’

“I was,” Merrill finally replied, handing the painting back and crossing her arms. “I wanted to see how he was doing but I realized that if he saw me here he wouldn’t have been happy with me. I just wanted to make sure he was okay. He gets in trouble at home sometimes and he doesn’t really mean to he’s just a little different.”

“He has magic.”

“Shhhh!” Merrill responded entirely on instinct, clamping a hand over Carlyn’s mouth.

This time, the silence that followed carried the scent of fear on its hem. The elf took her hand away slowly, worried about what might happen if she gave Hawke the chance to speak again. 

“Sorry,” Carlyn whispered but had to fight back a grin, “He has magic, I know.”

“How could you possibly -”

Opening her right palm out before her, Carlyn allowed a small, self contained flame to flourish for a few seconds.

“Oh.”

“Listen, we can’t really talk about this here, and I have another class to teach after this one, but if you want I could call you and we could meet sometime?”

“Meet?”

“As in, have a coffee,” Merrill grimaced and Carlyn responded immediately, “o-or just any drink. I could tell you what I’ve noticed about Feynriel and we could try to come up with a solution. Together.”

“That’s, that’s very kind of you.”

“I’ve been told I’m a kind person.”

“You are.”

Merrill frowned as if any suggestion to the contrary would have been entirely ridiculous.

“Right so, uh…number?”

Both women began to look around for a pen until Carlyn mentally kicked herself, reached into her pocket and simply handed Merrill her phone after unlocking it.

“If someone else picks up just ignore whatever they say and ask for me,” Merrill said as she typed in the number, “I live in a big household, it can be a challenge sometimes.”

“Will do.”

Pause. Merrill was still holding onto the phone. She tore her eyes from Carlyn’s briefly and let out a small, surprised sound when she looked down as if she’d forgotten completely about the phone. She handed it back.

“Okay, so I’m going to -”

“Ah, yes.”

“I suppose I will see you around?”

“Definitely.”

Small footsteps carried Merrill to the door.

“Goodbye, Hawke.”

Carlyn waved tentatively in response at the elf’s back, reaching for her coffee mug for what felt like the millionth time in the past hour.


End file.
